My name is Laughlin Eddy and I am a retired teacher in Merritt. First of all I would like to acknowledge the effort the Commission put into addressing the important issue of electoral boundaries. Any opportunity for redrawing boundaries should be carefully considered with the aim of achieving fairness and balance for citizens of British Columbia.

British Columbia is a diverse province with natural physical boundaries that historically helped forge the cultural and economic identity of each community. Resource based towns and villages geographically close together share similar cultures, have common quality of life concerns and distinct economic prerogatives. It makes sense that today electoral boundaries should take into consideration these same economic, cultural and geographical factors as a way of unifying and addressing the issues of the citizens in each locale.

Consideration must be given to ensure sensible and practical boundaries that recognize some areas will experience greater population than other areas. It is essential that this be a taken into account.

In summation I wish to thank those Boundary Commission members who sought a sensible solution to addressing such an important part of citizen representation in our province.